Distribution of Fishes in the Red River of the North Basin on Multivariate
Environmental Gradients

The Fishes of the Red River Basin

From 1892-1994, 84 fish species representing 20 families were reported by
investigators from the Red River basin (Table 3).
Of these, 77 are considered native to the basin; and seven are known introductions,
including the rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss), brown trout (Salmo
trutta), brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis), muskellunge (Esox
masquinongy), white bass (Morone chrysops), common carp (Cyprinus
carpio) and flathead chub (Platygobio gracilis). All but the
cyprinids were introduced for sport-fishery purposes in the basin; and, while
most populations of salmonids and muskellunge have been maintained by state
and/or federal stocking programs, the white bass has apparently reproduced
successfully in the basin following its introduction into Lake Ashtabula (Sheyenne
River) in 1953.

The highest percentage of fishes from the Red River basin were from the
family Cyprinidae, which was represented by 29 fish species (34%), while 10
species (12%), 9 species (11%), 8 species (10%), 6 species (7%), and 5 species
(6%) were from the Percidae, Centrarchidae, Catostomidae, Ictaluridae, and
Salmonidae, respectively. The families Petromyzontidae, Hiodontidae, and Esocidae
were each represented by two species (2%), and 11 families were represented
by only one species (Table 3).

Two fish species included in the list for the Red River basin (Table
3) are known only from historical records. The longnose gar (Lepistoseus
osseus) was reported by Woolman (1896) from the Otter Tail River near
Breckenridge. Only one specimen was collected, but local people reported it
as abundant in the deep parts of the stream at that time. The specimen is
on record at the BMNH. Another species, the lake sturgeon (Acipenser fulvescens),
has also not been collected in the basin in recent years. Strand (MDNR FISH,
Bemidji, pers. comm. 1994) reported a single lake sturgeon caught during the
1950s in a walleye net in the Red Lakes. A 102-pound sturgeon was taken from
Lake Lida (Pelican River) in 1920, and another weighing 176 pounds which was
7 ft 3 in long was taken from White Earth Lake (Wild Rice River) in 1926.
This sturgeon is on display at Cedar Crest Resort, White Earth.

The longnose gar and the lake sturgeon, along with two species found in
the deep, cool lakes of the eastern basin, the ciscoe (Coregonus artedii)
and the whitefish (C. clupeaformis), are not included in any analyses
of stream fish species which follow in this dissertation. The muskellunge
was omitted because it has not been collected during stream surveys. Omitted
entirely from the species list for the basin were the goldfish (Carassius
auratus), reported from the Sheyenne River near Lisbon, and the golden
orf (Leuciscus idus), reported from the Red and Buffalo Rivers. It
is unlikely that either species reproduces naturally in the Red River basin.